Most Popular Recipes of the Season

About four times a year, I like to review our logs to find out which are the most popular recipes of the season. What I’ve discovered is that the most popular recipes tend to be the best recipes. And, in what has become a constant at Leite’s Culinaria, about 80 percent of the best recipes are dessert recipes. The best cookie recipe, the best pastry recipe, the best cake recipe, the best cupcake recipe—well, you get the idea. (What is it with you guys and sweets, anyway?)

Maybe it’s pedigree. Just look who created these luscious lovelies: Dede Wilson, the fabulous Flo Braker, and David Lebovitz (each offering up two of the most popular recipes), plus Mollie Cox Bryan. (And then there’s Jacques Torres, for that ultra-popular, baked-’round-the-Internet chocolate chip cookie.) Of course, what’s a “Best of” list without an outlier? And in this incredible lineup of desserts lurks a Southern staple—one of our all-time most popular dishes: shrimp and grits, this one by Paula Deen.

How do we define the most popular recipes (aka the best recipes)? It’s not just that they’re the most viewed and printed dishes—that in itself wouldn’t be enough. It’s also the fact that each of these recipes, dessert or not, works—time and time again, in kitchens all around the world. Our testers have made them and so have you. And if I were to come clean (The One’s always cautioning me about playing favorites in public), most of these are in my go-to file, and the rest are in steady rotation at our house.

So, come on…your turn to fess up. What are your favorite recipes on LC? And—are you more of a baker, cook, or both? Let us know below.